Entergy counts Isaac recovery costs

Published 9:20 am, Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Hurricane Isaac cost Entergy Corp.'s operating companies between $400 million and $500 million in power restoration, the New Orleans-based utility said.

Louisiana was the hardest-hit with costs between $240 million and $300 million for Entergy Louisiana, which covers most of the state. Entergy Gulf States Louisiana will share between $70 million and $90 million of the restoration.

Entergy Texas, which was not hit by the storm, sent more than 200 line repair crew members to help with restoration. The costs that Entergy Texas bore in helping will be paid by the utilities in the affected areas.

Isaac made two landfalls in Louisiana, both south of New Orleans.

The first was just southwest of the mouth of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish on Aug. 28.

The second was west of Port Fourchon in the early hours of Aug. 29. Entergy Texas sent repair crews east on Aug. 30. They returned last week, said Debi Derrick, Entergy Texas spokeswoman.

Isaac cut power to 767,000 people in Louisiana and Mississippi, and later in Arkansas. Its slow crawl along coastal Louisiana parishes caused high winds, storm surge and rain squalls that relentlessly pounded southeastern Louisiana over a two-day period causing extensive damage including flooding in several areas, an Entergy Corp. spokesman said.

Isaac is the fourth most significant storm to strike in an Entergy service area. The other larger storms include Hurricane Katrina with 1.1 million affected customers in 2005; Hurricane Gustav with 964,000 affected customers in 2008; and Hurricane Rita with 800,000 affected customers, also in 2005.

Hurricane Ike, in 2008 and just two weeks after Gustav, struck Southeast Texas and left 705,000 people without power.